Mummy’s Little Girl: A heart-rending story of abuse, innocence and the desperate race to save a lost child
at all. And for that, Dani was pleased. When the other children did pay attention to her, it wasn’t the kind of attention she wanted.
She was the last to leave the classroom, and Mr Wynn hurried her on. ‘Come on, Dani,’ he said impatiently. ‘Outside for break-time, please.’
Dani nodded timidly and left the classroom; Mr Wynn followed her out into the playground.
It was a clear winter’s day, cold enough for the raw chill of the air to burn Dani’s bare legs. Her school skirt was short, not as a fashion statement, but because her mum – her foster mum, actually – had not bought her any new clothes for ages. All her school mates seemed to have new trainers every other week, and they certainly noticed that Dani was not as well dressed as them. It was one of the many things that they used to pick on her.
She skirted round the edge of the playground, trying to make it look as if she was busy doing something when in fact she was just wandering aimlessly. As she passed certain groups of kids, they shouted names at her, but she was so used to them doing so that she hardly heard them.
Dani had been wandering for perhaps five minutes when they stopped her. Ashley and Tammy were the two most popular girls in the class. They had long hair and wore perfume and make-up, even though you weren’t supposed to at school. It made them look much older than their twelve years, and it also put them on a different side of the playground to Dani, who never had anything to make her look pretty. Ashley and Tammy were mean girls. They were always picking on Dani, always teasing her for being so quiet, always trying to get her to say dirty words she didn’t want to say. They made her cry on an almost daily basis, and she hated it when they turned their attention to her.
Dani tried to carry on walking, to get away from the potential confrontation, but they weren’t having it. Tammy wolf-whistled at her, and Ashley stepped forwards and grabbed hold of the hem of her skirt, pulling it up and down so that it billowed. From somewhere else, Dani heard the sound of other children laughing, and she felt blood rise to the skin of her face.
‘What you doing, Sinclair? Going on the pull?’ Ashley called.
Embarrassed, Dani looked down at the ground and carried on trying to walk away; but the girls kept following her.
‘Don’t think there’s anyone fancies you much round here,’ Tammy added.
‘Shut up,’ Dani retorted from behind clenched teeth.
It wasn’t like her to answer back. The other girls knew it and they jeered. Ashley went for the skirt again. This time, Dani swung round and lashed out at the other girl. It was a pitiful sight – Dani was no fighter, and the other two were good at it. Immediately they piled in, pushing Dani to the ground and pulling at her hair. Dani wanted to fight back, but she was not good at this sort of thing, and she curled up into a little ball as a crowd gathered round to watch the entertainment. There were shouts of encouragement as the girls started punching her curled-up body. Dani was in no doubt about who they all wanted to win the fight.
‘Fucking cry-baby,’ Ashley shouted gleefully when she noticed the hot tears that had suddenly started to stream down Dani’s face. And then again, in a sing-song voice, slightly babyish but all the more aggressive for that: ‘Fucking cry-baby …’
‘All right, you three. That’s enough!’ a man’s voice barked from nearby. Dani looked up to see Mr Wynn, his green eyes flashing angrily. ‘I said, that’s enough!’
The scratching and clawing stopped. Humiliated at being the only one still on the ground, Dani pushed herself up.
‘That’s not the first time I’ve seen you three fighting,’ Mr Wynn said severely. ‘I don’t expect to see it happening again.’
Dani looked wide-eyed at him, smarting from the injustice of it.
‘Don’t look at me like that, Miss Sinclair,’ Mr Wynn snapped. ‘I won’t have any fighting in the playground while I’m on duty. Is that understood?’
Dani felt herself nodding. ‘Yes, sir,’ she said quietly.
‘Ashley? Tammy?’
‘Yes, sir,’ they replied in unison, their voices chanting almost sarcastically.
‘Good.’ Mr Wynn nodded his head decisively, and then turned and walked to the other end of the playground. With his back to them, he did not see the spiteful little smile that Ashley and Tammy cast in Dani’s direction.
It was late on Friday evening, and there were three people in the meeting: Kate Swinton, a tall, curly-haired social worker with a thin face and kind eyes; Andy Martin, also a social worker – a young man with a shaved head to hide the fact that he was balding; and Alice Gray, a fair bit older than the other two, their line manager. It had been a long afternoon, and their meeting had overrun. All three of them were looking forward to getting out of the bland room in the council offices and going home. But there was a final case to get through before that could happen.
‘All right,’ Alice said with a sigh of relief. ‘Last one.’ She looked at the agenda on the table in front of her. ‘One of yours, I think, Kate?’
Kate Swinton nodded. ‘Dani Sinclair. Twelve years old. I’ve mentioned her to you once or twice before.’
Alice smiled. ‘Sorry, Kate,’ she said. ‘Heavy caseload. You’ll have to refresh my memory.’
Kate pulled a file out from a little pile by her side. ‘She’s only come my way in the last couple of years. Before that we had no reason to become involved. She was placed with a foster family at birth, a couple in south-west London. Two younger siblings, but neither of them fostered.’
‘Unusual,’ Andy butted in.
‘Mmm,’ Kate replied. ‘I spoke to the mother about it. They tried to conceive naturally for a long time before they fostered, and she fell pregnant soon afterwards.’
‘Sod’s law.’
‘Quite.’
‘Come on,’ their line manager said briskly. ‘Let’s wrap this up. What’s the problem with the child?’
‘Difficult to say,’ Kate told her. ‘On the surface of it, nothing – at least nothing that I can detect. She’s very quiet, and by all accounts finds it difficult to make friends. Young for her age, I’d say – not as streetwise as a lot of the kids we see nowadays. But that’s really nothing out of the ordinary – nothing that would require our intervention. It’s the mother who’s more of a worry. Her husband left the family home two years ago as a result of an affair, and he hasn’t been back since. Divorce is only just coming through now, but he’s not paying any maintenance, and the CSA being what it is …’
Alice rolled her eyes.
‘Exactly,’ Kate said. ‘Anyway, unusually it was the mother who got in touch with us. Her husband leaving hit her pretty hard, I think. She told me that it was getting more and more difficult to look after the three children, and she didn’t think she could continue fostering Dani.’
Both Alice and Andy blinked. ‘How old did you say the girl was again?’
‘Twelve.’
‘And she’s lived with the foster mother all her life?’
Kate nodded.
Alice shook her head. ‘Some people—’ she muttered. ‘Are you trying to tell me she’s requesting that the girl be reassigned?’
‘I’m afraid so.’
‘Has she given you any reason, other than not being able to cope? Any real reason, I mean?’
‘Yes. She’s complaining that the child is showing signs of becoming violent.’
‘Violent?’
‘Getting into fights at school, attacking the other